2016 Hickinbotham Clarendon The Peake Cabernet Shiraz, McLaren Vale

Deep, dark red/purple colour. The bouquet is fresh and bright and at this stage shows the spice of the shiraz component, but the more you sniff, the more the cabernet blackberry and blueberry shines through. The fruit is perfectly ripe and the wine is superbly balanced; where it differs from the Trueman cabernet and the Brooks Road shiraz is its structure. It has a firmer backbone, which will ensure it ages well and long. Black, red and blue berry aromas and flavours, cedar and spice, the shiraz spice receding the longer the wine is aerated. A wonderful glass of red wine. Drink to 2043.

98 points Huon Hooke for The Real Review, July 2018

57/43%, fermented separately, 100% new oak. As always, it's about choosing the best parcels of fruit and barrels for this high-end wine. It's seamless. The pristine fruit absorbing the oak, the filigreed tannins, the chalky acidity, everything doing their bit to create a complete wine. While incredibly fresh, its best days are ahead of it. Drink to 2036.

96 points Jane Faulkner for Halliday Wine Companion, June 2021

The sum is greater than the parts here. Stunning interaction of the two grapes. The shiraz fills and lightens the cabernet just perfectly. Abundant red and dark berries, plums and chocolate. Super fine tannins, too. This is blended to perfection. A brilliant wine. Drink or hold.

96 points James Suckling, June 2018

The 2016 The Peake Cabernet Shiraz leads with 57% Cabernet Sauvignon and the balance Shiraz. The wine is rich and dark, with layers of blood plum, dark chocolate, a dense corporeal note (not quite meaty and yet not quite not) and exotic spice notes that waft above it all. There are notes of clove and star anise, mulberry, licorice and even nutmeg. This is sensational, with really mid-palate weighted fruit. It is superb. Drink to 2046.

95 points Erin Larkin for The Wine Advocate, February 2026

A robust and concentrated aroma of ripe mulberries, blackberries, dark chocolate and tar. A generous, intense, and opulent palate with plentiful fine tannin and balanced acidity. It is a bold, full-bodied wine that has been very well-made, and it will cellar long into the future. Drink to 2035.

95 points Toni Paterson MW for The Real Review, March 2019

This 57/43 blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz shows the depth and structure that's made The Peake one of McLaren Vale's most collectable reds. Blackberry, mulberry and dark chocolate sit alongside cedar, clove and a savoury, tar-like edge, with fine, filigreed tannins and bright acidity carrying real length. A decade on, it's drinking with genuine poise, and still has plenty of road ahead.

Its firm structure and warm spice notes call for equally robust company: a five-spice braised beef cheek, or for something lighter, a char-grilled eggplant with tahini and walnus, both matching the wine's structure without fighting its spice.

More about this wine

This wine is a blend of 57% Cabernet Sauvignon and 43% Shiraz, sourced from Hickinbotham’s original 1971 vines. All batches of fruit were fermented and matured separately. The 15-month maturation took place in a mixture of all-new French oak barrels, with Bordeaux coopers chosen for the Cabernet and Bourgogne ones for the Shiraz. The final wine represents the best of the vintage through barrel selection.

The 2016 McLaren Vale vintage was one of the most exceptional ones in the 2010s.

About Hickinbotham

The Hickinbotham Vineyard is one of McLaren Vale’s most distinctive sites, and a source for many of the region’s finest wines long before its name appeared on its own label in 2012.

The 164-hectare property has 38 hectares of vines planted from 1971, dry-farmed with organic and biodynamic practices. Featuring diverse soils and aspects at an elevation of up to 315 meters, the site enjoys the excellent ventilation with breezes from the hills and the sea alike that Clarendon is known for.

Winemaker Chris Carpenter and vineyard manager Cliff Wickman are the current guardians of this special vineyard majority-owned by California-based Jackson Family Estates.